The Coca-Cola Company

Company Shares Water Stewardship Efforts At Global Forum



March 31, 2006 edition

Members of our Company’s environmental team recently participated in the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico, where water experts from throughout the world and other interested stakeholders shared their knowledge, perspectives and passion for protecting and preserving this vital natural resource.

The timing of the Forum, March 16-27, coincided with World Water Day (March 22), a day of awareness about the challenges facing the world’s freshwater supplies and the adversity faced in many communities throughout the world where access to safe drinking water and sanitary conditions is poor or does not exist.

The Water Forum offered an opportunity to learn about many approaches and initiatives being taken both to protect water resources and expand access to safe drinking water. It was also an ideal venue for us to share information about our commitment to the environment and to strengthen our relationships with environmental partners and other organizations.

Our Company’s commitment to the environment is embedded in our "Planet" vision -- part of our Manifesto for Growth -- which states our goal of becoming the global corporate leader on water stewardship. To move toward that goal, we are
  • supporting community-based programs that provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation,
  • partnering with nongovernmental organizations and communities to help protect watersheds and key river basins, and
  • focusing on ways to ensure that our manufacturing plants operate as efficiently as possible and meet or exceed performance standards.
Our Company’s support for community-based water programs ranges from working with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to install hand pumps on water wells in Mali; to building rainwater harvesting systems in India to capture rainwater runoff during the monsoons and route it back into groundwater aquifers; and working with the United Nations Development Programme to restore water and sanitation systems in the Indian Ocean region ravaged by the tsunami in 2004.

In addition to working on programs that benefit the local communities, we also are addressing the broader water issue of protecting watersheds. One example of this work is the Danube River conservation efforts that involve our operating divisions in 17 countries, as well as our bottlers. These efforts have focused on reducing water pollution, protecting habitats and educating the public and officials on the role of watersheds in supporting local communities.

Another global project our Company helped support is the creation of the first-of-its-kind freshwater map of the world that provides information on nearly 470 freshwater ecoregions and the species that inhabit them. The map, developed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), known in some parts of the world as the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, also incorporates research on the threats facing the ecoregions, biodiversity and access to freshwater. This map was displayed at a WWF exhibit at the World Water Forum.

In addition to focusing on community needs and watersheds, a clear priority for our Company is to conserve water in our manufacturing operations. Every year, we conduct a thorough analysis of water efficiency throughout the system. By dedicating teams in our plants to water conservation, employing new technologies and optimizing water use and reuse, our water-use ratio improved by 6 percent in 2004. Performance data for 2005 is being collected and will be presented in our environmental report. View reports from past years, go there »

While working with partners such as WWF and USAID, our Company also is leading an effort to create the Global Water Challenge, a multi-year campaign by businesses, nongovernmental organizations, academia and others that will provide sustainable solutions to communities in need.

The pilot program for the Global Water Challenge is the Water for Schools program that has brought drinkable water and sanitation to 50 schools in Kenya.